Bikram (face covered) with a police team during the hunt for detonators on Sunday. Picture by Mita Roy

Purulia, July 22: Face covered and dressed in camouflage gear, arrested Maoist leader Bikram has been leading a police team on a search deep inside forests on the foothills of Purulia’s Ayodhya Hills for the past two days.

He has helped them recover over 100 detonators, a rifle snatched from the security forces and other equipment.

Bikram was taken to the Kalabera and Borgora forests after he told his interrogators about the spots where the team of Maoists he led in Purulia had hidden their arms and ammunition, police sources said.

Counter-insurgency Force (CIF) sources said Bikram, an IIT Kharagpur dropout who was arrested on July 16 from a Purulia railway station, first led the police team to a place inside the Kalabera forest yesterday where detonators had been hidden.

“He himself dug up the spot and pulled out a packet containing detonators. We asked him to put the detonators in a bag, which he carried himself,” a CIF officer said.

“He also led us to a .303 rifle that the Maoists had snatched from the police. We are trying to find out from where it was taken,” the officer added.

Today, Bikram helped the forces unearth more detonators, a digital camera, a battery charger and Maoist literature from the Borgora forest.

Around 60 personnel, including CIF jawans, took part in the operation, led by deputy superintendent of police Anshuman Saha and CIF deputy commandant B.K. Sahoo.

“Bikram had told us he had led an eight-member Maoist squad in the Ayodhya Hills. Whenever someone among them gets caught, the rebels shift their hideout. When we asked him about their arms and ammunition, he said he would help us find them if we took him to the forests,” an officer said.

Asked why Bikram, who was leading a recruitment drive in the district before his arrest, was made to wear camouflage fatigues and cover his face like the other members of the team, the officer said: “We wanted to conceal his identity because there was the possibility of his getting shot at by the rebels.”

He added: “Besides, Bikram is an accused in many murder cases. He could have been attacked by the family members of those he had allegedly murdered.”

The officer said intelligence officer Partha Biswas and his friend, schoolteacher Soumyajit Basu, had been kidnapped from an area close to the Borgora forest. Bikram is the main accused in the duo’s abduction and murder.

Another officer said Bikram wanted to meet Mamata Banerjee and seek rehabilitation under the package announced for Maoists.